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2012-01-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

e pluribus haiku

now available on Kindle

2011-12-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

I use this blog to talk about my poetry rather than to display it, for the most part, but these days I'm writing a lot, and putting most of it here; I'm also cleaning the place up a bit, removing the dead links, etc. A while ago when I presented the site to some haiku buffs they pointed out the copyright issues with linking to anonymous (to me) pictures of spring, fall, etc., and as a photographer I certainly have the ability to put my own photos in a prominent place, link to them, and have a simpler, cleaner system; I just haven't done it.

But e pluribus now has over 600 haiku, and in addition, has both a printed book (which caught about 550 of them) and an online version. What I will call e pluribus haiku, 2011 may not be the last, but it's the first actual publication. I spent the holiday season giving it away to family members. One said, it's lighter than the stories. Indeed it is. It's even humorous in parts. But I'm increasingly aware of how rough it is, not refined, even embarrassing. The trap, presumably, that you fall into with slaving adherence to 5-7-5. The advantage being, with 550 poems, it has a certain cohesiveness as a body. I finally became impatient with years of imperfection and decided, essentially, to run with what I had. And e pluribus is the result. By the way, a blatant cover/promo will appear on top of this post and virtually everywhere else I can put it, soon. That's what I'm doing this holiday, promo.

But the feeling of being a published poet (albeit by myself) is hard to shake; I wasn't really going for that image, am even a bit embarrassed by it. I don't tell people this at parties; I'd rather push the stories which of course leads me, in my own mind, to the ongoing failure to finish a novel. I am finishing, printing and promoting two books of stories concurrently, but in public life I'd much rather talk about them than being a poet. Why? Not sure. I should be proud of it.

I write slavishly; the poems go well with childcare which leaves me just about seventeen syllables in my head at any given moment. Also my exercise routine, which features a new stationary bicycle, half an hour a night, with radio, gives me room to manage, reshape, come up with haiku. I've put up about thirty or more this month, I'm cranking them out, having fun, and really concentrating on the place as a site; this last has just barely begun. I'd worried, previously, a lot about alabama, it being the first one anyone sees, yet to me one of the ones most likely to draw pure stereotype and limpid condescension. What to do? One possible response is to put the cover first, glorious, taking up much of the screen, and then the intro, so you have to tolerate quite a bit before you get to alabama, and then it's only if you're scrolling down, and not attracted by clicking on your favorite state at the left. I'm going to spend some time on the design of the site itself, and see what I can come up with.

While I'm at it, speaking here as a poet, I'm still interested in Actualism in general, and it's becoming increasingly clear to me that I'm a voice in the wilderness here, if there's anyone else doing actualism, anywhere, it sure isn't appearing on Google. Not that I'm doing Actualism. No, although I try to make my haiku actualist (actualism being drowned out by minimalism, one could say), that's as close as I get. No, I'm more interested just in making sure it doesn't go by the wayside, as a movement, as a thing that happened and was, geographically and coincidentally, concurrent with my time in my favorite place, Iowa City. I wrote a story about poets for a book about the Hamburg Inn; I'm not sure if it will be published, and if so, how it will be received, but this is virtually all I've done on the topic all year, and we're closing in on the end of 2011; I don't have much to show for it. At one point I had a strong desire to find a certain poem that is in the Actualist Anthology, but I'd lent it to a friend; though I found him and he agreed to return it, I haven't pulled off the exchange yet. Such is life in a small town. I should just order another, but it's a matter of principle, but what kind of principle is that? My friend who runs the press Spirit is languishing in lack of orders, probably; I should be helping him out. Do I detect a New Year's resolution?

Back to the haiku; if you're of a mind, download or borrow the Kindle version; if you need paper, write me and I'll oblige you one way or the other. Keep your eyes on this site; it's an unfolding miracle.

2011-05-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

from birds point levee
river's crest is relentless
bound for mud island
(5-11)

at forty eight feet
forked deer, wolf, loosahatchie
waters are backed up
(5-11)

2010-09-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

I use this sleepy blog to report on my poetry activity; my two main interests are haiku and actualism. Actualism is itself sleepy; I'm not sure anyone has really taken up the flag and carried it, and I am really not ready, having a more-than-full-time job and eight children. I did run across the bio of one of my favorite actualists, Dave Morice, and I'd like to remember him here, not only because of all the cool poetry stuff he did (writing poems across bridges, etc.), but also because of the costumes he wore as Dr. Alphabet, which, in their own way, did more to promote poetry than anyone I've ever seen. Now his name came up in the course of a conversation about promotion, self-promotion, etc., but, poetry never needed more of this than it does now. Nevertheless, I am still dressing in plain clothes myself. Perhaps when I retire, I'll wear a top hat, and promote something or other.

On the haiku front I was pressured to introduce myself in my favorite e-mail haiku list and did. I told about my haiku project and how I use links, and I mentioned two things I was mulling over; both started discussion threads that lasted a while and were ultimately resolved. I listen in carefully to this list but many of my 600 standing e-mails come from there and are waiting to be processed, either here or at the haiku site, as they have links of active haiku writers and web-publishers. My first question involved the discussion of things printed on that list itself; it's really more of a private conversation, so I can't really repeat poems there, and I pointed that out. Second, was my eternal mulling over the benefits and drawbacks of 5-7-5 and how the haiku community itself, as personified by the people on that list, seemed to have universally rejected it. I however still find myself stuck to it at least for the purposes of finishing a large project that is all in 5-7-5; for a large collection, uniform syllable structure (whatever the one chosen) can be useful for unity's sake alone. The benefits and drawbacks of 5-7-5 are a recurring topic but one poster actually put into a poem the idea that discussion of its merits was like fingernails on a chalkboard. In other words, many are so beyond it they don't even want to talk about it.

I slog along, and produce a few poems a day, or maybe 5-19 a week, but this is only when times are good; when there are personal crises, all poetry goes out the window. I write a lot of prose on my personal blog but have done nothing to collate my short stories or my autobiography into concrete, sellable form. Same with my haiku. It could conceivably amount to something but at the moment is mostly an escape from the grinding overextension of my abilities in my daily life; it's like an austere, spare room that I seek refuge in, if only for a moment.

Visit me though; I'm not averse to comments. Do not take offense at the google ads here; they've been here for centuries, and never once have drawn a click, outside maybe my own.

2010-01-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

With the new year I've been going through my pockets putting haiku that has collected there, online. I have several places where I put it. It's not much; it's been done, mostly, when stuck in meetings, when giving tests, when standing around. For example, I'll be in a place where I sense they're purposely delaying me as a kind of power trip, like a state office. So I pull out the haiku and start writing on small colored pieces of paper. Invariably I get served more quickly; maybe they're afraid I'm with the press, or I'm judging their service. No- I'm writing haiku.

I choose the haiku format, with seventeen syllables, and two links, for the most part (my innovation) in the vast majority of what I do, which appears here...an opus that includes almost 300 now, but isn't carefully organized. It's uneven; IL has 22, but Hawaii has only one; the least I could do would be to move some of those IL ones out to the neighboring states although they for the most part are doing pretty well too. Alabama is extremely important as it comes first; yet I've been unable to really make that one the showcase, though I do have one for each season, which is my goal for every state. Alaska has six, but they're all summer...so it goes. I need to do research, add wildflowers, and love...

I remain interested in other kinds of haiku, like meta-haiku (below), and have put numerous Carbondale haiku on my Carbondale site...this tends to highlight my local experience, and though some of it could go in the IL file (some already are)- for the most point references are known only to the very local. Still this site leads to all my local haiku which I would like to someday collect into its own place. In this I make no attempt to tie it to location, and in some cases I don't even have kigo...so it goes. But I've stuck religiously to 5-7-5 for the time being, if only because I love how the insistent regularity of 5-7-5 allows you to hear the syllables better for what they are...

I'm also interested in coder's haiku (elsewhere at this site) and total link haiku...but more about that later. And I haven't forgotten the Actualists, and the Actualist reunion, which I hold out as hope for the future...I'm proud to have a site whose title says, essentially, "reference," but which is as earthy and actualist as I can make it...have a good new year, all!

meta haiku

haiku thunderstorm
power, media blackout
kigo clog gutters
(5-09)

2009-11-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

d & e concourses, miami-dade

e concourse news flash
same news over and over
snowed out rockies game

d and e concourse
time suspended; mindless folks;
why not take a nap?

flooded out school bus,
people saved; news continues
eleventh time 'round

a flight attendant
late for her next assignment
we wait patiently

always miami
sunny, bright, hopeful, half-drunk
airport passersby

overpriced sandwich
what passes for sustenance
planes pass through; i stay

2009-07-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

Haiku Quisqueya (poems for the Dominican Republic)

santo domingo
malecon wall braces me
sea brings next june storm

malecon driftwood-
sodden texture, rounded shape-
summer souvenir

from central highway
road to moca beckons us
as at home, we pass

mangos, papayas
slipp'ry as fish in a net
sweet fresh taste of life

dominican rain
makes spirit melancholy
may storms never left

can't dance merengue,
my feet shuffle awkwardly-
her forgiving smile

ubas de playa
out of favor these days, but,
eaten before ripe

off the malecon,
sea crashes on black coral-
dark tales on june morn

oldest in new world,
mossy university-
autonomous, bleak

street of ancient brick
called calle de las damas
street of the women

this plaza's dances
that evil bronze conqueror
has seen every one

2009-07-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

haiku for july 4th, 2009, illinois usa

hot illinois fourth
corn of all sizes shimmering
spring planting stories

kickapoo bottoms
bobcat's tracks pressed deep in mud
poet's mind gone blank

minor league baseball,
packed stadium, sea of cub
jerseys, fourth fireworks

outside of use,
rolling hills, shaded valleys;
sunny, lazy fourth

illinois river,
night settles on weedy banks;
folks wait for fireworks

river bank wildflow'rs;
overgrown blooms hide car's nose-
we've gone in for fish

(7-09)

2008-06-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

certain media
lend themselves to brevity-
pebble hits water

2007-05-06T22:30:00.001-07:00

TOEFL HAIKU

1
Peer pressure, panic
Go to SIU in June-
Choose the correct answer!

2
April TOEFL class,
Listening section blah blah
What did the man mean?

3
outside, spring blossome
finish reading section!
c, c, c, c, c!

4
listen to passage
about fishing- do NOT write
on the answer sheet!

5
barbeque on porch,
neighbors drunk on Friday night
long reading section!

6
No eating in pool-
meaning of “pool” in line 1?
Life is a reading question…

7
B and D are wrong,
A and C are possible,
Missing the picnic!

8
That I am the person whose
summer comes to this!

9
Native country code,
fill in the little circles-
slight breeze from window

10
what can be inferred,
asks question forty seven-
brain is at the beach

11
fishing on boat dock,
grammar section on my mind,
mosquito on knee

12
spring smell, flowers’ bloom
attract bees- if bee is right,
a, c and d must be wrong!

13
summer impatience
heard this example before,
neither likes painting!

14
don’t slow down to fix
sandals, race clock, read ev’ry
passage- pencils down!

2007-01-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

crumbs, champagne bottle,
reflection in monitor -
haiku on email

baby wears himself out,
long nap on living room couch
rose parade or not

2006-12-25T21:27:00.000-08:00

coffee grounds spill down
percolator's hourglass mound
cold morning seconds

dubai mall complaints
titanic theme song constant,
louder than air-con

odyssey- drama,
winter break experience
in parked honda van

2006-12-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

Link poets take a look at this:

From concrete to digital: The reconceptualisation of poetic space, by Anna Katharina Schaffner.

Lots of links too- especially the bibliography!

More to say on this later- I hope...

2006-12-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

Here we have an interesting site. I link to it because, if you get into the mechanics of it, you realize that the fact that everything is in threes- three verses, three articles, three words in the title, etc., gives a kind of an interesting relationship of things that runs through the links. I'd like to explore this more, maybe try it. It's a kind of twist to link poetry...

2006-12-05T09:43:00.001-08:00

Not very active on the poetry front, and for that I apologize, but again I am introducing whole classes of internationals to haiku, and thus carrying the flag a little. But I open up this site for this purpose: look at this article.

Bourre, A.C. (2006, Dec.). The Sea as Hypertext. vestige.org. http://www.vestige.org/archives/2006/12/the_sea_as_hype.html. Accessed 12-06.

I am baffled by this, frankly. He writes about hypertext poems- yet, are there any? If so, where? I'm interested. Exploring the nature of hypertext, especially in the context of literature, is very interesting. But old literature?

I like a mouse in my right hand when I read poetry....otherwise, I have a hard time even thinking about it. Maybe it's my shortcoming. Interesting, anyway. Enjoy! Thank you, August!

2006-06-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

landfill road lowlands
turtle, shell sharper'n roof nails-
take your time, i'll swerve!

2006-04-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

total link fib

link
each
'n'ev'ry
syl la ble ,
hide stuff in com mas ,
and don't stop at eight , be gin ners!

2006-04-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

this blog unfortunately has taken a back seat and a lot has happened. First, in early January I was featured in the local newspaper along with several other folks as a blogger...I had mentioned to the reporter that I had invented link poetry (which was true to the best of my knowledge at the time)..in fact I had already had it written here for quite a while. I had to retract it, however, when my friend Dave More produced earlier link poetry. Was glad to get that behind me. I'm a link poetry historian, innovator, practitioner (and all those are being generous to myself) but not an "inventor"...anyway.

...stayed away from active blogging here, partly out of embarrassment that my actualism research never materialized. I did ZIP about it. That's 'cause I joined a band and started making music. But I don't even have time for that...anyway, all of the poetry has fallen off. the haiku, the boxcars, everything. the music, culmination of a lifelong dream, kind of took over a corner of my spirit.

but speaking of actualism, a tornado ripped into Iowa City on Apr. 14, ripping selective roofs off of such structures as St. Pats and a sorority house...god uses roofing nails for punctuation...

and now, along comes "fib" poems, using 0-1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89...most people stop at 8 or 13. Will link to them a.s.a.p. so you can get my drift. Some of these, I've seen, are linked, especially in the comments of the original fib weblog, which keeps freezing up my IE.

Dave also is doing link poetry, unprovoked, unrewarded (as far as I know), unpaid, and not famous yet. We were there then...i seen it - and know, that the spirit moves, thru hypertext & the april wind.

2005-11-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

ok, so here's a little more on actualism. note the date. you read it first here. nobody else is digging up stuff about actualism that i know of.

1970's, iowa city, i was there, a bunch of these crazy poets, a little older than me, got together and had an actualist convention. i don't know that much about it. it was a reaction to a poetry scene centered on the writer's workshop there in iowa city, that was a little too cerebral, a little too effete. actualists maintained that you didn't have to have read tons of classics to know good poetry. and they wrote accordingly.

that's what i know. my old friend dave morice, dr. alphabet, used to dress up and do things like write poems off of bridges and off of iowa city's tallest (six-story) building. i don't know if he was an actualist or not....the originator, darrell gray, once said you could be if you wanted to be.

i guess that's all the permission i need.

-more later...

2005-11-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

Actualism

I am beginning to study actualism. It was a poetry movement in the 1970's which involved some people I knew, centered where I lived (Iowa City), and it culminated in a volume, the Actualist Anthology, that I am very interested in.

It's an interest of mine. Who knows where it will go? More later on this...

2005-10-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

ok, starting today, i'm using this site to make my comments on short poetry. i had put them here at my home creative site, but there is a lot going on creatively these days; i'm considering writing a novel; don't know what to do with the poetry, etc., so, let's back up, and see what we have.

First. 5-7-5 haiku is not dead. american poets can write what they want, the cream will rise to the top. i am a novice but i've just begun, and i love writing in 5-7-5, it forces you to a certain standard, and it makes you in harmony with the trains...i also love linking stuff, am the only one i know of that does link-poetry on a regular basis, though as i've said, it's slowing down as the novel is a longstanding dream. i still find short poetry a powerful way to tolerate, say, a wait in the coffee line.

i have no inclination to draw attention to link poetry at this moment; i'm still busy writing what i consider the first two works of it, e pluribus haiku and boxcars on walnut. these are entirely experimental. they are mostly 5-7-5, sometimes missing a kigo, or at least a clear one...but i have a lot to say, having started the process. link poetry started here...this space remains as its home...i hope i don't ruin it with all this blabbing....

2005-07-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

jump off moving train,
hit ground with same speed, direction -
hard lesson for mouse

jump on any train
that says santa fe on it,
even in winter

grocery store horse
takes a penny, rides a kid -
too busy for this?

put stamp upside down -
credit card office worker
may not catch signal

2005-07-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

with baby at lake,
a jaded soul's edge worn smooth -
as tide shapes the stones

clear skies in st. jo,
but the river still rises
right over the road

drunk stumbles to car,
small town street, midsummer night -
cop waits in shadows

-

2005-07-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

japan

narita in march
folks warm hands with noodle soup,
having come back home
(7-05)

shimonoseki
in bamboo grove near temple
a heavenly nap
(7-05)

pachinko parlor
wasted summer - same in
every culture
(7-05)

-

2005-07-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

link limericks

(first that i know of)

there once was a man from the 'Nati
who drove all the pitchers just batty
but he bet on the Reds
& got caught by the Feds,
now Selig's all "Pete, who's your daddy?"
(7-05)

there once was a man from the Loo,
who one year had nothing to do
flew non-stop to france
came back, took a stance
strictly against world-war-two
(7-05)

2005-07-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

-

erie driftwood beach
pebbles, sand under bare feet
nuke plant fades from view
(7-05)

outside toledo
frozen slush falling from truck
makes glazed road deadly
(7-05)

(first of what will be
a collection of 50-state link poetry,
tentatively called e pluribus unum
and temporarily put here).

2005-07-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

around town

walmart parking lot
war ribbons on most all cars
no shade near front door

flag discover card
to scrape icy winshield with-
what desecration?

train behind melange
slow enough to jump on it
broken glass hurts foot

open box cars roll past
on their way to new orleans
block road to walmart

boxcars speak in french:
canadien national-
idlers cursing don't

2005-07-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

at the doctor's

in doctor's office
chair, gazing sadly at tools
that will get to heart of it?

on the scale it's assumed
that shoes weigh several pounds
and keys another

2005-07-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

at cedar lake (cont'd)

sand bank erosion-
sandcastle back into lake,
only sunburn lasts

floating past lake beach,
fishermen cut boat engine,
watch us in silence

2005-06-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

at cedar lake

beyond the buoys
snapping turtle shows itself -
territorial

laotian family
catching fish with little net
eight in twenty minutes

fish jumps out of bucket
flapping around on the sand
just a foot from lake

swimming beach road sign:
"park diagonal only" -
learn rules, then forget

2005-06-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

coder verse (cont'd)

a href equals quote
url goes to wherever
inside the pumpkin

h-r divider
stone wall in coder's forest
place to take a break

yo- template spider
ancient soul in view source cave
garden of coder's mind

nine point monaco
eyes get accustomed to you
you glow in the dark

(more coder's verse)

2005-06-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

around town

(at the cafe)

wisp of smoke curling
memories rise, dissipate
breeze will take you west

(at the dentist)

morning appointments
mention possibilities
any tuesday's fine

2005-06-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

CESL poetry

lawn mowers attack
listening class their victim
please repeat question!

cigarette beckons
though you said you quit before
some fire during break!

the pain of hearing
and translating monday's sounds
english is torture!

life after CESL
a big university
classes in English!

woods green and friendly
calming people walking by
nature's boundary

a word spelled on board
a or e? possibly wrong?
dictionary knows...

2005-06-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

summer with children (cont'd)

(in Eli's room)

thirsty at bedtime
an excuse to get daddy out
shake up status quo

squirm before sleeping
a three-year-old's mind won't rest
be still, ideas!

please dad please please please
get another squeezing yogurt
get more yogurt NOW

(in the anthropology lounge)

refrigerator
jam packed full of sandwiches
will you keep this cool?

2005-06-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

summer with children (cont'd)

in Faner

electrician comes
sounds, lights, plugs, cords and outlets
a kid's dream come true

for Corey

asleep on my chest
short soft sounds of contentment
my heart beats with yours

homemade nametag

name tag with safety pin
E-L-I spelled carefully
as if I'd forget

in Parkinson

yo dinosaur bones
we aren't scared of your big teeth
we're young, immortal

in Parkinson #2

from geology
"structural evidence from
pseudotachylites"

in Parkinson #3

we sit on shiny floor
mom's voice floating out to us
sociology

2005-05-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

coder's verse

view source: cave entrance
let's go beneath web surface
javascript stalagmites

blink and refocus
new world with different light
nine point monaco

2005-05-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

summer with children

(for Eli)

earnest young fellow
three and a half is old enough
let's make time stand still

(for Eli)

you try my patience
your stubborn contrariness
i love you dearly

(for Corey)

baby burps and sleeps
wakes up now to eat a bit
life is easy, smooth

gather pine needles
pile up fragrant birthday cake
earth stick soul candle

(at the sculpture garden)

huge rusted corkscrew
monument to twisted will
ego augurs breeze

exotic flowers
crowd the aisle, fill me with awe,
boy likes greenhouse hose

on the swing I push
you into the wretched world
learn to pump your legs!

slide wet with morning dew
minutes into sandy years
get your bottom wet!

swing like 3-year-old
dizzying experience
the earth falls away

haiku on stickies
go back into my pocket
folded smudged and gray

coloring book out
parade of diner crayons
waiting for pancake

outside, cardinals
hope I'll share my french fry scraps
they're addicted too

large box, small office
a kid can have lots of fun
perfect hiding place

we argue over tape
i hate to waste a whole roll
this was stuck to me

paper rolled out on floor
child with crayon sprawled on it
get close to picture!

think somebody had been
coloring inside the lines?
upset their world view!

think haiku walking,
every thought with climax,
then resolution...

self-flush urinals
very scary for a kid
avoid at all costs

(sociology blackboard)

Functionalism
Conflict Theory Symbolic
Interactionism

2005-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

at the Japanese garden

Japanese garden
on my daily rush to swim
one day I'll stop here

green brackish fish pond
is your world as dark as mine?
guess i'll stay on bridge

minutes ticking by
feel different to orchids
but no less precious

wasps nest in wood house
we sit with nature's danger
beside sawdust piles

2005-05-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

web policy verse

(the following were written in response
to SIU's new template policy: all
webpages must have the new SIU template...)

seeing red #1

whatever I wrote
"Copyright Board of Trustees"
you sure you want this?

seeing red #2

old logos vanquished
new template rules in place
forget history!

seeing red #3

put your page content
inside this ugly template
comments: webmaster

seeing red #4

javascript magic
things disappear on mouse-over
tell it to the code!

seeing red #5

we see high noon on
the pulliam clocktower
town's too small for this

2005-01-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

gray january
bone chilled speed bump of winter
suspension damage

2004-11-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

total link haiku

to tal link hai ku
e ver y path goes in ward
most pre cious gar den

tl, 11-04

2004-11-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

actualism

actualism lives
iowa city clueless
as to where it went

tl, 11-04

2004-11-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

buffalo hunter

arena parking
lot...car herds huddling on
vast asphalt prairie

tl, 11-04

2004-11-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

Total Link Haiku

being webmaster
at S. I. U. 'slike hittin'
your head on brick...ouch!

2004-11-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

the arch

symbol of a leap
from east to west
from settled hills
to wide-open plain
and clear blue skies
with an occasional cloud

you reach for the light
you soar in angular white edges
you turn gently
to look back at the river
and make the city
gray up into the horizon

i'll turn again
i'll come back to earth
i'll let the clouds pass untouched

but for now
my white ribbons, my edges, my angles
embrace the threshold
of two feet barely touching
and the eternal glow of freedom

-tl, 11-04

2004-11-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

Downstream from the Peace Bridge

keep your plane away from the falls: this is a true story-
the mist will freeze on your wings;
an icy glaze covers the entire canadian side;
a half an inch sends whole cars flying.

it's valentine's day, jackson county, illinois;
my date is with the divorce court judge,
but my heart is at the edge of niagara,
watching sheets of ice break as they hurl
over the edge onto the rocks below

ten and a half years of marriage, i should be
sad, sentimental
or just afraid for the children, god help
the innocent, the helpless

instead i'm adrift, with no feeling,
no fear, no joy, no vengeance, no mercy;
at the rail on the canadian side,
two feet from the hurling ice,
telling myself: don't jomp,
someone may be needing you.

jackson county courthouse, second floor balcony,
a child looks through the posts of the railing;
waiting for the sentence delivered upon her parents,
she is not my child: i wish her serenity and justice;
may our wishes come around full circle
and be delivered upon us.

the operator of the maid of the mist,
a small tourist boat at the bottom of the bridal veil,
says that only the children survive,
when going over the falls:
they manage to fly over the rocks;
if they're lucky they're saved
before they get to the whirlpool
at the bottom of the gorge.

patience, determination, my allies, stay by my side,
"do you feel this agreement
is in the best interests of your children?"
says the judge. "whereupon, henceforth,
hereinafter, set forth upon this day,"
says the agreement. respect, i ask you:
where have you been all this time?
sanity, you are the crown
on a crumpled ontario license plate-
yours to discover

freedom and detachment, you are the posts
on the footbridge at goat island:
the ice on the water is still coming toward me.
piece of wood, you are what's left of a bot:
you must choose between the american side
and the canadian side.
i will not reach out and save you either way.
i hope you are still floating
when you get to the bottom of the gorge!

-tl, 2-14-1997

2004-08-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

a grainy picture
is not entirely bad, it's just
a little unclear, allowing the audience
to let its reality
get between the image and the eye
much like the lake
gets between life and a feeling
before the circle
from the pebble
comes gently onto the bank
and disappe

2004-06-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

a poem for you

if poetry is frivolous
it could be because
it's a tease, a delayed flight
lighter than the spring wind,
not down to earth, unreliable

but if love is frivolous,
it could be because
one can love poetry, the runway,
the language of the everyday,
or the view from the window
of our lot from the sky

from a small plane coming home,
circling,
on a sunny day above our trees
i wrote poetry on a small bag
in the pocket of a crowded seat,
hidden and abandoned during landing

but the poetry was only a shadow
in the light of your welcome,
your loving patience,
and a gentle swing by the flowers
after many rough landings,
dark roadsides, a long trip home

the poetry is history,
the bag hidden and empty,
or found by the attendant, but
those words long forgotten,
though new ones are blooming even now

and our love is those flowers waiting
in turns, with the rhythm
of seasons unfolding
not frivolous or temporary,
but patient and perennial,

and opening to show you
we are where we belong,
even if you didn't see us,
we were waiting for that moment
in the warm morning sun

tl, 6-7-04

2004-05-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

a steady drizzle

is spring like the flower
like the poison ivy
and the hungry snake
rise above it
stay on the highway
write web poetry
don't stop 'til you're home
5/12/04 tl

2004-05-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

arena parking lot

a wide open space, a few trees on the edge
rows and rows of empty parking lot, windy sky above
kids in a car in the middle, waiting to make a deal
or smoking something, hiding in plain sight
or waiting for me to finish walking by
so they can do donuts or squeal

ah, my home, i'll not forsake you-
quiet and empty though you may be now
i saw the flower of promise, bright and unfolding
between cracks of cement at night-
it's not over yet,
though the visitors' buses are long gone,
the sunrise brings another season

tl, 5/9/04

2004-05-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

2004

some days
there isn't enough coffee in this world
a 2-yr-old at home sick
an unread newspaper
iraqi horror picture show, in full color
hits you in the head like a 404
no place to escape, weeds are movin' in
time to mow the may lawn
& try not to run over the baby bunnies....

2004-05-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

kansas

an intersection ahead, lights in the sun
my intention, my meaning, an allusion
& your recognition, your own approach
& a doorway, an accident, unspoken possibilities

a blog is a threshold, a moment, an incident
the real world a screech of brakes, stress and darkness,
or the pieces of glass, the reflection, the changing lights after dark
though now the road has flattened out, horizon empty

but you were there, i saw you & remember,
while the yellow lines, the rearview mirror, the keyboard
are illusions of the moment, black on white, another word on the screen

5-2-04/tl

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more

more

japan

link limericks

(first that i know of)

(first of what will be a collection of 50-state link poetry,tentatively called e pluribus unumand temporarily put here).

around town

at the doctor's

at cedar lake (cont'd)

at cedar lake

coder verse (cont'd)

around town

(at the cafe)

(at the dentist)

CESL poetry

summer with children (cont'd)

(in Eli's room)

(in the anthropology lounge)

summer with children (cont'd)

in Faner

for Corey

homemade nametag

in Parkinson

in Parkinson #2

in Parkinson #3

coder's verse

summer with children

(for Eli)

(for Eli)

(for Corey)

(at the sculpture garden)

(sociology blackboard)

at the Japanese garden

web policy verse

seeing red #1

seeing red #2

seeing red #3

seeing red #4

seeing red #5

(first of what will be
a collection of 50-state link poetry,
tentatively called e pluribus unum
and temporarily put here).